World needs $30 bn to feed itself evey year: FAO chief

DPA Innsbruck (Austria), June 26 (DPA) Up to $30 billion are needed annually to guarantee that the world population will be sufficiently fed up to 2050, the head of the UN food organization has said ahead of an international conference. European countries, development banks and the World Bank had pledged 7 billion euros (about $10.88 billion) at a summit meeting on food security in Rome in early June, Austrian news agency APA reported Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director General Jacques Diouf as saying here Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of a FAO regional conference for Europe, Diouf predicted that food prices would remain high. Sustained demand for foodstuffs, problems created by climate change and low stocks contributed to this trend, he said.

At the FAO conference, to take place June 26-27, member states will discuss how to support emerging nations in Europe and central Asia whose recent agricultural growth is threatened by climate change and rising staple food prices. DPA